PHP: Getting a value of a static variable of an unknown subclass

Question

Possible Duplicate:
From the string name of a class, can I get a static variable?

Somewhere in a parent class, I need to find the value of a static variable of one of the possible child classes, determined by the current instance.

I wrote:

  $class = get_class($this);
  $value = isset($class::$foo['bar']) ? $class::$foo['bar'] : 5;

In this example, the subclass whose name is in $class has a public static $foo.

I know using $class::$foo['bar'] is not a very beautiful piece of code, but it gets the job done on PHP 5.3.4.

In PHP 5.2.6 though, I am getting a syntax error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM, expecting ',' or ')'

Is there an alternative way that would work on PHP 5.2.4+ that would get the same thing done?

Answer 1

EDIT: Reflection is better.

You can try the get_class_vars method. No access to PHP 5.2.6, but this works in 5.2.11...

class Test {
    public static $foo;

    function __construct() {
        echo("...Constructing...<br/>");
        Test::$foo = array();
        Test::$foo['bar'] = 42;
    }

    function __toString() {
        return "Test";
    }
}


$className = 'Test';
$class = new $className();

$vars = get_class_vars($className);

echo($vars['foo']['bar'] . "<br/>");

Output:

...Constructing...
42